Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[Sprite]

It's a prequel to Breath of the Wild that will show how our heroes completely beefed it against Ganon. Neat!

So far Link, Zelda, and the four champions are all playable. Here's hoping they bring in non-BotW characters as well for other modes. They haven't announced if there will be other modes, but there have to be, right? They wouldn't forget about Adventure mode, right?

Anyway, this comes out November 20th (!), just in time for you to be almost but not quite finished unlocking everything in Hyrule Warriors.

 

[Phantoon]

Hooray, another Hyrule Warriors game that I'll never 100% ever!

Looks magnificent, I've got to be honest

 

[WildcatJF]

I am SO HYPE right now this is a perfect match.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Huh, first I thought it was a DLC or expansion pack to Hyrule Warriors, but it looks like a standalone game? I'm down. The actual story of Hyrule Warriors was kinda hot nonsense, but since that game was a giant fan service crossover jamboree that didn't really matter, but I'd be interested in seeing how a more grounded(ish) story can work in a Warriors game.

 

[Phantoon]

The story is written by the Zelda team, it's actually canon if you care about that for some reason. Breath of the Wild engine too.

 

[Becksworth]

Damn, Breath of the Wild is practically its own timeline franchise now.

 

[Becksworth]

Double posting, but I just noticed the little white mini guardian in the corner of the box art, and I’m betting that’s a playable character.

 

[Regulus]

I never played Hyrule Warriors, but I will play this.

 

[Funtastic]

I think the King of Hyrule is also going to be another playable character

 

[Octopus Prime]

Ooooooooohbooooo

Anyway, this comes out November 20th (!), just in time for you to be almost but not quite finished unlocking everything in Hyrule Warriors.

I appreciate the confidence you show in me.

 

[Exposition Owl]

So, a question from a Zelda fanboy who didn’t play Hyrule Warriors: was that game basically Zelda combat with no puzzles or exploration?

 

[Phantoon]

It's more like a standard Dynasty Warriors game. Simple combat, but you have to monitor the map and do objectives. So you might have to run across the map to stop a keep from falling, or take out a boss, or escort a giant bombchu.

It's also really over the top - Young Link can build a bar to turn into Fierce Deity Link and become super powerful. Marin fights with the Sea Lily's Bell amd can hit people with the Wind Fish.

 

[ThornGhost]

They spent a lot of time and money making that world and all those assets. They're going to use them every way they can. Seems like a smart idea, good collab. I bet the Warriors games have done well for Nintendo.

This is like Fabula Nova Crystallis if that had actually, you know, worked.

 

[Exposition Owl]

I’m afraid I haven’t played any Dynasty Warriors games, either. The way you describe it, it sounds almost like an RTS where you’re controlling a single character rather than clicking around a map.

 

[Phantoon]

Depends on the game. It's very beat 'em uppy with hugely powerful moves and mooks who don't do a great deal except get murdered by your awesomeness in the minute to minute gameplay, with some light strategising. In the Switch version of Hyrule Warriors you had multiple playable characters you could direct and you could zap between them instantly.

It's really fun

 

[Becksworth]

Yeah, The Nintendo specific Warriors games at least do have light RTS elements. Hyrule and FE Warriors both also have color coded bases you have to capture and defend, whereas from what I’ve seen of Dynasty/Samurai Warriors its more just a scripted sequence of events, like a beat em up in war game trappings.

I’m honestly surprised neither Hyrule or FE Warriors ever had an online vs. mode, because you could totally make a MOBA out of them with a little work.

 

[Paul le Fou]

:3

 

[Rascally Badger]

making another variation of the one joke I have It might be interesting to see what the world was like before everything was destroyed in the Seven Days of Fire.

 

[RT-55J]

I wonder if AOC will be an unlockable character in this game.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I wonder if AOC will be an unlockable character in this game.

No but she's voicing Zelda

 

[Becksworth]

Man, the meltdowns on some corners of internet were that to happen...

 

[Vaeran]

I enjoyed the campaign of Hyrule Warriors well enough, but did not have a spare 10,000 hours to do all the extra content. I had actually been waffling over whether to re-buy it on Switch to take another crack at it, but I'll just get this instead.

 

[Bongo]

The digital preorder bonus is a joke weapon for Link, the Lucky Ladle, which appears to be a traditional sword-n-board. The fact that such a weapon can exist for him suggests that it's not just inheriting the weapon system from Hyrule Warriors 1, where different weapons were just flat upgrades.

The extreme variety of characters and play styles in the last one of these was the best thing about it, so I'm hoping it maintains the Musou tradition of having a ton of non-canon scenarios with varying degrees of seriousness. Ideally, this would allow them to pull in characters who couldn't have been involved in the events of the story. Making the champions' heirs playable would be a great way to pad out the roster.

I’m afraid I haven’t played any Dynasty Warriors games, either. The way you describe it, it sounds almost like an RTS where you’re controlling a single character rather than clicking around a map.

That's an apt description. They're light strategy games controlled with an action interface, and the strategy is all about prioritizing objectives based on how long it'll take you to run there and kill whoever you need to kill at that location. It can get very hectic, but you can level up to give yourself an edge. Some Warriors spinoffs have more elaborate gimmicks on top of that concept, but not Hyrule Warriors. If you love Unlocking things, there are so many things to unlock.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm already sold. Like all of you I adored BotW. But I also unabashedly love the Dynasty Warriors games too, so getting a Zelda-branded one is no shame or compromise for me. And unlike a lot of you I had a lot of criticisms of BotW, and a big one was how while playing that game, I spent most of the time wishing I was playing the game flashback sequences instead of what we were actually playing. So I'm very much *here* for a DWstyle prequel with a stronger emphasis on providing a linear, guided story versus the narrative desert that was BotW.

Breath of the Wild engine too.

I've seen this said elsewhere online, but it's an assertion that I can't find anything to actually back it up with. It's obviously and definitely reusing a lot of BotW assets, but it seems like a leap to suggest it's somehow using the same graphics engine.

making another variation of the one joke I have It might be interesting to see what the world was like before everything was destroyed in the Seven Days of Fire.

Might not be an original joke, but it's a pretty apt one. Zelda always had BEEG Nausicaa/Laputa vibes, and BotW doubles down on it hard.

 

[Phantoon]

I've seen this said elsewhere online, but it's an assertion that I can't find anything to actually back it up with. It's obviously and definitely reusing a lot of BotW assets, but it seems like a leap to suggest it's somehow using the same graphics engine.

No idea where this came from then, and thinking about it it probably wouldn't be a good thing anyway. It looks just like Breath of the Wild, which is what it needs to do.

 

[estragon]

This looks cool. I hope it's made as well as the previous Hyrule Warriors game, because I vastly prefer how this one looks. Keep going back to this aesthetic until people are sick of it, as far as I'm concerned.

That's an apt description. They're light strategy games controlled with an action interface, and the strategy is all about prioritizing objectives based on how long it'll take you to run there and kill whoever you need to kill at that location.

I would add to this that light applies equally to both the strategy and the action, for better or for worse. Compared to either a beat 'em up or an RTS or hybrid games like say a Diablo 3, there's much less moment to moment danger. They are games about making you feel very powerful, but the flipside of that is that this is partially achieved by having 99% of enemies just standing around and doing nothing, waiting to get killed. I think a big factor in whether this style of game will work for you is whether you are able to suspend disbelief enough to feel any sense of excitement or tension when you see vast legions enemies . . . who are mostly just kind of milling around and waiting to die.

 

[Bongo]

Normal enemies in a Warriors game are like the coins in Mario. They're not obstacles at all, but rather they're the guide that tells you where you need to be going.

 

[madhair60]

Hyrule Warriors is the best number-go-up game ever, so obviously I will buy this and play it for a jillion hours, earning precisely 8.6% completion.

 

[Troa11]

Oh man, this is coming out like a week after 2 straight months of double work and a move to a new place. It's perfect timing to unwind after all that.

 

[MarcAlan]

But will Linkle make an appearance? That's what I want to know.